Pilot blamed for Turkish air crash

AN AIRCRAFT engineer from Cheadle Hulme who worked on the equipment of a plane in which his brother and 74 other passengers were killed, heard at an inquest that the crash was caused by 'catastrophic' pilot error.

AN aircraft engineer from Cheadle Hulme who worked on the equipment of a plane in which his brother and 74 other passengers were killed, heard at an inquest that the crash was caused by 'catastrophic' pilot error.

David Ringland, 36, was involved in making the black box flight recorder for an RJ-100 plane built at the BAE factory in Woodford. The plane was later bought by Turkish Airways and crashed in dense fog at Diyarbakir Airport in Turkey, in January 2003, killing 75 people on board.

David's 31-year-old brother Christopher, from Tameside, was killed in the crash, along with his work colleague Christopher Holtom from Hazel Grove. The pair were on the internal Turkish Airways flight from Istanbul on their way to visit a power station.

And it was the black box recorder built by David that provided investigators with information to demonstrate the crash was caused by pilot error.

After the inquest on the two men, held at Stockport Magistrates court, David said: "This has been terrible and we have been left to pick up the pieces. Christopher was my brother and best friend. He had a marriage planned, he was fit and healthy but the next minute he was gone. It is very distressing.

The hearing was told that information from the flight recorder showed that as the experienced pilot approached the airport in dense fog, he reported that he could not see the runway clearly. Despite the co-pilot reporting a cockpit warning, the pilot replied 'a little more'.

The hearing was told that, according to flight procedures, if the pilot could not see the runway after descending below 2,800 feet, he should have abandoned the landing. But the plane continued on and crashed 100ft short of the runway.

Air accident inspector Robin Tydeman said he couldn't explain why the pilot had ignored the approach procedure. He said: "Why does someone make a conscious decision to go against the rules, I don't know. Pilots have pride in getting the job done. There is a bit of that in there and there's a bit of knowingly breaking the rules."

Pathologist Dr Roger Hunt told the inquest that both men died from burns and multiple injuries. Mr Holtom's wife Susan broke down in tears when she heard details of the injuries the father-of-one had suffered.

Both men worked for the Man B&W Diesel Group in Stockport and were in Turkey on a business trip.

Recording a verdict of death by misadventure for both men, deputy coroner Chris Welton said: "We will never fully understand what went through the pilot's mind. This was a pilot knowing what the rules are and making a decision to go against those rules. The consequences were catastrophic."